Category: How To and Tips
Your Reader Needs You to Dive Deep By Melanie Dickerson
Your Reader Needs You to Dive Deep By Melanie Dickerson As a writer, don’t save anything, don’t pull any punches, and don’t protect yourself or hold back your emotions. If you want your reader to remember your book, to fall in love with your story and your characters, you must leave everything on the page. […]
Crafting Characters Who Make Your Readers Care By Shannon Hollinger
Crafting Characters Who Make Your Readers Care By Shannon Hollinger Think of a book that made you care, that had you so invested in the outcome that you wanted to cry or shout or throw things when events didn’t go the right way. When you think of that book, what is it that you remember? The […]
Writing a Novel for Adults: One YA Author’s Experience
Writing a Novel for Adults: One YA Author’s Experience A well-meaning friend called me recently to tell me how much he’d enjoyed DEADLY SETUP, my latest young adult novel. “You know,” he said, “you’re such a good writer that I bet you could write a book for adults someday.” My friend meant this as a […]
Inspiration to write Sisters of Wartime England
Inspiration is magic. I have always been fascinated by the achievements of women. Authors such as Jane Austen who wrote six novels in the early 19th century. Two hundred years later they are still giving millions of readers pleasure. Mary Shelley, at only eighteen, wrote Frankenstein. One of my favourite authors is 20th century novelist, […]
Writing Dialogue as two Authors
Writing dialogue as two authors: we have a unique approach to our writing as a team, writing in real time together, sharing narrative but never characters. When our characters interact, it’s really two individual authors having a fictional conversation, but how do we make it work? Ellie Curzon is the joint pen-name of writers Catherine […]
What Makes a Book “Unputdownable”?
WHAT MAKES A BOOK “UNPUTDOWNABLE?” These days, most people are addicted to their devices. I confess, I’m one of them. But I also love to read and have an ever-growing stack of books on my TBR table. So, what keeps me reading instead of checking my phone to see what new rabbit hole there is […]
The Urgency of the Story
The Urgency of the Story Before there were podcasts, there were call-in radio shows, and listeners would often identify themselves as “long-time listener, first-time caller.” Similarly, I’m a long-time writer, first-time author, and it really has been a long time! I began a youthful writing practice when my parents gave me a blue “journal” (actually, […]
Why Do Female Protagonists Have to be Likable?
Why Do Female Protagonists Have to be Likable? Karina Cortés, the protagonist of my debut novel, ONE TOUGH COOKIE, has been called unlikable by many who’ve read the book. This was something I was aware of as I wrote, something I wanted her to be. Through all the rewrites, I kept her core personality intact, […]
Are We There Yet? By Thelma Adams
Are We There Yet? By Thelma Adams I have a day job and a night job and sometimes they intertwine. My day job is as a film critic and entertainment journalist; you know what I do “at night.” Write novels. Last month I interviewed X-Files superstar David Duchovny, 62, about Bucky F**king Dent, the film […]
My Writing Journey by Nancy Thayer
By Nancy Thayer My first novel, Stepping, was published by Doubleday in 1980. What a long time ago! We were living in a fourth-floor walk-up apartment in Kulosaari, a suburb of Helsinki, Finland. I wrote the first six chapters by hand in a small notebook while my two children, two and four, were “taking naps […]
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